Now I Remember
by Kare Uta
Summary: An old friend of Bryan's leaves him to babysit her kids for a night and Bryan chooses to take things as a life lesson and think back to his Abbey days with his friends. Not the typical over-humorous babysitting story. Friendship story. Oneshot.


_**Now I Remember**_

Humming softly, the fiery redhead sped down the stairs, swinging a little on the column at the end, "Bryan? Who was at the door?" he walked through the living room and about to enter the kitchen, reversing and blinking strangely at the sight of two kids sitting on the sofa. He sped into the kitchen, "Bry…there are kids on the sofa…" he stated, then looking at the baby in a car seat on the kitchen table, "and on our table too."

"Do you _think_ I can't see that?" Bryan bit out with frustration, lifting his head up from the wooden surface.

"Well I was trying to bring myself to ask you…why?"

"Their mother was a family friend, the baby just recovered from a cold and the twins in the other room just finished chemo for cancer. She had to go check on her mother who's sick a couple of towns away, she couldn't risk getting the kids too close. She'll be back late tomorrow night."

Tala raised an eyebrow at him from behind him, "You know nothing about kids. Why would you agree to taking care of them?"

"Do you actually think I agreed to take care of them? She asked me, I said I wouldn't manage, she was okay with it and was going to try and leave them with a relative. She left the kids at the door and told them to give me the note."

The redhead looked over Bryan's shoulder and at the note beside the baby, _'Sorry, had to leave the kids with you, no one else could take them. You're just like your mother, you'll be okay. I will pick them up tomorrow night. Keep them safe for me.' _

"I can't take care of kids." Bryan said through gritted teeth, hands clawing slightly at the table as he grew frustrated.

"You'll be okay Bry."

"Because you're going to help me."

Tala shook his head quickly, raising his hands slightly and stepping back, "Oh no I'm not. I'm no good with kids Bry. I was on my way out for a few drinks with the others; Kai and his team leave for the tournament tomorrow so we were meeting up for a few hours. I was going to ask you to join us but it seems like you're busy."

"Tala! You can't leave me with these…things."

"You'll be fine Bryan. Just stop calling them 'things' and don't yell, you'll be fine then. I'll be back in a few hours." He made a quick step to the door before Bryan could protest, still hearing Bryan's mumbled curses, "And don't swear! Kids are like sponges!"

"You better not get drunk! I'm not taking care of you too tonight."

Bryan took a long deep breath, glancing at the baby in the baby seat on the table, it was sound asleep at least and he hoped that it'd remain that way. He slowly, and extremely quietly, slid out of his seat and walked into the next room, stopping in the doorway for just a moment to wonder if it was safe to leave the baby alone. Seeing no harm coming to it where it was, and considering it'd only be a few minutes, he walked into the living room.

Once he'd come to terms to his misfortunes of the day, he'd put the kids to sit on the sofa in front of the TV. He figured, what harm could come to two kids sitting on the sofa and watching cartoons? They couldn't cause much trouble for him either and he thought it was probably the smartest idea he had so far. If the next few hours remained like this; the baby sleeping and the children sitting and watching cartoons, then he'd be fine.

One of the seven year old girls pouted, her twin sister sitting on the ground and mirroring her expression, "We're hungry."

Oh crap.

'_Tala always does the damn cooking. Didn't their mother have the courtesy to feed them first?!' _

Bryan collapsed onto the ground, crossing his legs and exhaling, "So, what do you things eat?" he watched them both shrug and he felt like crawling into bed and leaving them to fend for themselves till their mother got back. "I haven't taken care of kids in…ever really so could you make my life just a little easier and tell me what you like to eat."

The other twin chimed in quickly, smiling, "Pizza."

"Pizza. That's good…I can do that." He shifted closer to the coffee table, rummaging through some things he had under there and finding a take away menu. "You two can read, right?" he got two nods and he put the menu in front of them, "Choose what you want. I'll get the phone." He got off the ground and ran as far as the kitchen door, then going inside quietly to grab the phone off the island counter, he took another glance at the baby and seeing it still sleeping soundly. He went back to the living room, settling on the floor again, "You chose?"

"I want that." The girl in dark red pointed at one thing on the menu.

Her twin sister, in dark blue jeans and a pale blue t-shirt, pointed at something else, "I want that."

Bryan sighed quietly, for twins they weren't all that alike, and the bit that they were alike was actually frustrating him. He picked up the phone and menu, dialing the place and ordering for the three of them and then getting up, "The food will be here in about half an hour. So have patience, just watch more TV, don't turn it up too much because the thing in the other room is still asleep."

"Sayu." The girl in red told him.

"What?"

"Sayu…the 'thing' in the other room is named Sayu."

"Right…well she's asleep so don't turn it up too much." He walked up the stairs quickly, opening the spare room door and opening the window so fresh air could enter the room for the first time in ages. As far as he could tell, the room looked decent enough for two kids to use for a night. He dumped a pile of extra blankets on the foot of the bed, then going back downstairs to take a look at all three children.

He didn't dare contemplate on how fortunate he was that things were going well, because he knew that in a moment it'd probably come back to bite him in the ass. He took a seat in a chair in the hallway by the stairs, close enough to the kitchen that he could hear the baby if it cried and close enough to the living room to see the children sitting on the sofa. He sat back, shut his eyes tight and stroking his temples. His body was not made to look after kids and the growing headache proved it.

Someone tugged at his t-shirt, he opened his eyes and saw the girl in blue standing in front of him awkwardly. "What is it?" he asked, he didn't read 'child' very well and so didn't understand what she meant to say by that look on her little face.

"Can I use the bathroom?"

Bryan mentally kicked himself and stood up, "Sure." He showed her where the bathroom was, then stood outside the shut door, waiting patiently for her to come back out. She did, jumping a little on her way back to the living room. The food arrived thankfully, and he served it in the living room for them; not bothering to give them plates taking into consideration that without them he'd have less washing up to do, and they had less chance of breaking them, which would lead him to more cleaning up.

"Why's your pizza smaller than ours?"

"Because I don't eat a lot." Bryan replied, picking at his food.

"Why?"

"Because my stomach can't handle it."

"Why?"

'_God this kid is annoying.' _Bryan shut his pizza box which still had almost half of it in it, and took it the kitchen, shoving it into the bin.

The same girl in blue showed up beside him, handing the empty box out to him. "Finished." She smiled softly. He took the box from her and put it in the bin with the other. He found this girl sweeter than the other one. The other one just seemed hell bent on making this experience miserable for him. "I'm Ruka by the way." She whispered, flashing a sweet smile at him.

He tried a smile of his own, not very good but he managed. He took her back into the other room, turning to the mischievous one, "Are you done?" he asked her from behind the sofa.

"Yep." She tossed the box at him, huffing when he caught it perfectly with none of the crust falling out.

"Time for bed then." Bryan went back and threw the box away.

"But we need to have a bath before bed."

"Do you really or are you trying to kill me?" He murmured with displeasure. He shook his head, "Well then I'll run a bath." He threw his hands up in defeat, walking into the bathroom that was on the same level and starting on the bath. He stepped back outside, "So who's going in first?" he sighed.

"Both." The two of them ran in hurriedly.

"You have baths together?"

"Yes, sometimes."

Bryan pulled the door behind him, leaving it open just ajar in case they needed anything, "Well I shared shower rooms with my teammates till I was twelve, don't see how this should be weird." He mumbled to himself, leaning against the wall and sliding down it. He could feel his skin burning up, the heat wave that started recently beginning to bug him, making him suddenly miss the constant ice of Russia.

He sat there and continued to listen hard, hearing usual giggles and splashing; somewhat comforting to him that they hadn't drowned each other or anything. He fell asleep after a while, waking up again shortly with countless taps on both his shoulders. "What?" he mumbled groggily.

"Mom forgot to give us clothes to sleep in."

"So wear something else."

"We only have spare clothes for _tomorrow_."

"Can't you wear what you were wearing earlier?" He sighed, still unfocused as he staggered back up against the wall. They shook their heads at the same time, he found it terribly annoying. "Fine…just go back to the bathroom before you two get sick again." He ran to his bedroom, looking through a few of his drawers and picking out two t-shirts, different colors so that he could tell the two identically irritating twins apart. He went back downstairs, knocking on the bathroom door lightly before stepping inside, "Ruka?" he asked the two of them, the sweeter girl putting up her hand and him tossing her the blue t-shirt, tossing the other the black t-shirt.

Ear-piercing cries broke out in the next room, "Just when I thought I was safe." He mumbled, "Go sit on the sofa, I'll show you to your bedroom soon." He went into the kitchen, sitting up on the table where the crying baby was. He didn't know what to say, or what to do for that matter. The baby was maybe a year old now, and he never dealt with kids any younger than four.

"You need to pick her up."

He turned to Ruka in the doorway, "What?" he asked panicky.

"You need to pick her up, otherwise she won't stop crying." She moved closer to him, standing in front of the seat and rocking it lightly, "You can't possibly hurt her or anything so pick her up. She probably got a fright 'cause of a sound or something, she just wants mom."

"Well I'm not her mom."

"Just pick her up or she won't stop."

Bryan picked her up carefully, wincing more to himself at the thought that he could hurt her so badly if he made one wrong move. "Now what do I do? _Beg_ for her to stop crying?" he was having trouble with his temper which caused him to grow sarcastic, he hated not being in control of a situation. He didn't say anything else, the girl scooted closer and hovered over the baby, stroking her cheek and arm and mumbling sweet little words to get her to stop crying. The screaming quieted down, so did his thoughts after he felt he was able to think over them. "Can I put her down now?" he whispered, turning to her and getting more anxious to put the child down.

"She's not completely asleep yet."

"Bryan…I'm not feeling well." The other girl walked into the room uneasily, not even realizing how loudly she was speaking until the other two shushed her.

"Come here." Bryan beckoned her closer as he saw her in sweats, pulling one arm carefully out from under the baby and putting a hand to the girl's forehead. "Just go sit in the bathroom, I'll be there soon."

"I should go check on her."

"Oh no you don't, you're not leaving me here holding this thing."

Ruka leaned over the baby again, "Maybe it's safe to put her back down." She watched as Bryan did so, placing the blanket over the poor baby. He hopped off the table slowly, going to the bathroom, finding her throwing up in the toilet already. He held her hair back away from her face, sitting on the side of the bath while he tried to stroke her back a little. This much he'd done before, mostly with Tala when he was drunk or hung over. She choked and he stood up, tapping at her back carefully.

"Ruka, come here." He glanced at the girl, she looked terrified at what was happening to her sister and didn't move an inch closer, "Kid…sweetie just come here." He brought her closer, "Just calm your sister down, talk to her, sing to her, anything to get her breathing in order." He let the girl brush the other's hair back, then getting up and going into the kitchen where the medicine was. He picked up a glass of water, then dropping a bunch of boxes out of the cupboard; looking for something appropriate for this case and that would be suitable for kids. He dropped one tablet into a glass of water, taking it to the girl in the bathroom and watching her gulp it down.

The front door began to ring, making him wonder who on Earth would be ringing the doorbell at about midnight. He was on the way to the door when it rang again, waking up the baby in the back room which started crying for another time within the past fifteen minutes. "God, what plague have you sent upon me _now_?!" he asked, glancing upwards as if looking for an answer from the heavens. He opened the door quickly, ready to yell at the person who was there. It was the pretty brunette from his friend's team. Hilary, the name he remembered being introduced to her by. He raised his eyes again, "Good one." He murmured. "What are you doing here?"

"I was on my way home so I thought I'd come by and check on things, Tala mentioned you were babysitting."

"If _that's_ what you want to call it." He grabbed her arm and dragged her inside.

Hilary laughed at him, probably not realizing the severity of the situation. "Come on Bryan, babysitting isn't that bad. I've done it a ton of times with my sister, and my cousins."

"Then help me, I would actually beg but I don't have the time."

"Well what's the problem?"

The screams got louder and Bryan pointed in the direction of the crying baby, "That is. Then I've got one girl vomiting from possible food poisoning and her sister who is probably going to have a panic attack because she's scared so don't do this for me, because I know you don't like me very much, but do this for those kids because they really don't want to be on the wrong end of my temper right now."

"I've only got half an hour till I need to be home but I'll try." Hilary smiled softly when he looked at her with surprise and she walked down the hall hurriedly to aid the crying baby.

He crossed off the crying baby in his mind, then making his way back to the bathroom to look for Ruka and the other child he was sure was named Jun. He knelt down in front of her where she sat on the tub, placing his hands on either side of her small figure, "How are you feeling?"

"Bit better."

He sighed softly, tightening his hold on her and pulling her up into his arms, silently hoping that the movement didn't make her stomach turn. She seemed fine when he took a good look at her, exhausted though as her head immediately rested on his shoulder and her face in his neck. He gestured for the little girl beside him to follow him and he took them both up the stairs to the spare bedroom.

Both children immediately slipped beneath the covers, and the sickly Jun fell asleep just as her pale sweaty face hit the soft pillow. He brought in a bowl filled with water and a small wash cloth, dabbing the cool liquid against her flushed skin. "She probably ate something she couldn't handle." Bryan answered the questioning eyes of the sweeter twin.

"I don't think she ate anything bad."

"You'd be surprised. Anything could make a person sick these days…" looking up mid-statement Bryan saw the fear gleaming over the little girl's features and he immediately stopped his lecture on health in the modern world. "But she'll be fine." He got up and walked over to her, pushing her down under the covers, not gently enough, as he realized. "Go to sleep now."

He went to switch the light off from the lamp on the nightstand but nails dug hard into his wrist. It didn't hurt much, just stung, and caught his attention. "Don't switch the lights off."

"You can't sleep with the lights on." Bryan murmured.

"Please? Don't shut them off." She pouted up at him, her nails digging into him harder and tears welling up in her eyes.

Those tears sparked a little bit of pity in Bryan's heart, he couldn't really say no to them at all. "Fine…I'll leave it on. Just get some sleep…and quit scratching." He mumbled the last part, rubbing at his own arm. "Sleep well." He left the room, leaving the door open just ajar in case they needed anything, the fact that the girl was so clearly afraid of the dark it helped to leave the door open. He raced back downstairs, quiet again when entering the kitchen, "How are things in here?" He peered over Hilary's shoulder, watching her tuck the baby back into the seat and then pick it up to take it to the other room.

"She just needed to be changed and help to go back to sleep." She placed it down onto an armchair and sat down on the arm of it, "So how'd you get forced into babysitting? I don't see you as the type to offer your assistance."

"Old family friend needed help, couldn't really say no…"

"You look terrible Bry, did they give you that much trouble?"

Bryan had fallen back onto the sofa, lying down onto his stomach and burying his face in a pillow, "Could've been worse, I'm not complaining much."

Hilary got up slowly and went over to him, sitting beside his form, "You know your hand is bleeding, right?"

Bryan glanced at it, then waving it off at her and closing his eyes, "One of the twins was trying to convince me not to turn the lights off."

"Awww Bryan, you _never_ threaten a child with switching the light off; a lot of kids are scared of the dark you know."

"Yeah well I know that _now_, where the hell were you two hours ago?"

"I didn't and still don't need to here Bryan." Hilary stated in a teasing tone of voice.

"I know." He sighed and turned back over, carefully not to hit her in the back with his knee, "Thanks for helping out. I swear I thought I was about to crack."

"You can handle this if you had just a little bit more patience, you couldn't have done that badly if you got this far."

He groaned with distaste, forcing himself to sit up and move around her. He could feel her eyes burning in his back as he left the room, and then again when he came back with a bag of ice in a dish cloth. He sat back down, pressing the cloth to his neck and then turning to her, "Sorry, you want a drink or something?"

Hilary smiled brightly, seeing the sweeter side of the impatient and usually rudest Russian, "No thanks, I need to get home soon anyway; mom thinks I was at the library tonight."

"And here I thought you were actually a bookworm; in actual fact you ditch studying like everyone else." Bryan leant forward, opening the drawer of the coffee table and tossing the small bottle into her lap. "Help yourself."

The brunette glanced down at what she was given; mints, and she turned a deep shade of red, "Does my breath smell that bad?"

Bryan found the energy to laugh just a little, "No…but I hear mom's are like dogs with their daughters, so if you're trying to pull off that you were at the library rather than drinking then you should take them."

Hilary got up, smiling down at him, "Well I should get going then, she might get suspicious." He was about to get up but she pushed him back down onto the sofa, "Don't worry, I'll show myself out. You should rest while you still have the chance." She put a hand down onto his shoulder to get his attention again, which for as long as she'd known him, had always been split, "For how long are you babysitting?"

"Till tomorrow night; unless I decide to shove them in the oven or something, then it'll be sooner."

She laughed because she actually could tell that he was joking. Usually she'd think that comments like that were overly sadistic, but he was actually joking and that smirk on his face displayed that. "Well then if you like, I could pass by and help you out with them."

"Don't go through the trouble."

"It won't be any trouble. I've got nothing much to do anyway, and if anything happened to the kids because I didn't check on them then I'd feel guilty." She teased again.

"Thanks."

She couldn't quite tell if he was being sarcastic, but his attention wasn't fully there. Maybe it was because he was boiling hot, his body wasn't used to the Japanese heat and the ice was melting rapidly against his skin. "See you tomorrow then."

"Bye."

He waited patiently till he heard the front door closing tight behind her before lying back down with a sigh. He had to admit that the kids all knocked the wind right out of him. He's heard worse stories about babysitting but a baby crying too many times for his taste, a puking child and a second child who was close to have a panic attack, it was already enough for him. His attention also went to the scratch marks on his hand, a reminder that he failed to understand how a child thought. He couldn't believe he didn't remember a child being scared of the dark and understanding that.

He himself used to love the dark, Tala was always the one who hated it and would hit Bryan while in tears, yelling at him whenever he would switch the lights off for him. He was so terrible with kids that he could barely use knowledge of his own past and apply it to the present with other children.

He didn't want to think about it anymore. He took the bag of ice off the cloth and threw the bag onto the table, wrapping the now cold cloth around his red and slightly swelling hand. It didn't hurt much but Tala always got mad at him when he left wounds to bleed, he said he was being inconsiderate of those who were annoyed by the sight of blood and was risking injuring himself further. He turned over onto his stomach, shutting his eyes and in minutes, falling asleep soundly like everyone else in the house.

"Bryan. Bryan." Jun prodded at the Russian's side, making the boy mumble quiet curses and squirm beneath the aggravating feeling. "Bryan, I can't sleep."

"So what do you want?"

"Can I sleep here?" she curled up in front of him, dragging a blanket over her.

Bryan grumbled and fought with himself for a few minutes; he was certainly not going to go up to bed, because the girl would just follow and that'd be worse, and he couldn't go upstairs with her to her room because he wouldn't be able to hear if the baby cried, and at the same time he couldn't move the baby either. That left him with the only option of the girl staying on the sofa with him, albeit his better judgment. "Sure, why not? I'm going to burn in hell anyway."

She giggled and moved to the bottom of the sofa, putting a pillow under her head and the blanket over her little frame, "Night night." She whispered.

Bryan grew too tired to be able to wish her a good night and instead let his head drop back down onto the pillow and go back to sleep, trying to ignore the feverish burning he felt all over his skin.

After many more interruptions of sleep; the baby crying, Ruka coming down to make herself sleep on the sofa, and one of the children kicking him hard in the crotch in their sleep, Tala came home, went up to bed and then came back down and briefly stayed beside him trying to pull him out of his sleep again. "Bry, they're going to break your back."

With a little stretching of the limbs that had been dormant for the past few hours of sleep, he found Jun in the same place, but another light form lying on his back, realizing what his redheaded friend meant. "Leave them alone, they need sleep."

"You can't possibly be comfortable, Bry. Your back is going to give you hell later on."

"What time is it?"

"Almost seven, you should move up to your room, they'll be fine sleeping alone for the next few hours." He wiped his hand against the other's neck and shoulder, feeling the heat and sweat on his skin, "You're sick again, Bry."

"Tala go and get some more sleep because if you wake the baby I will kill you…"

After that Tala left to get some more sleep like Bryan suggested, trying to keep his mind off the fact that Bryan was sick and had been a nervous wreck for the past month or so.

Bryan woke up late the next morning, feeling like he'd been hit by a truck in his sleep. He'd been moved to his bed sometime in the night, finding it difficult to really believe at first, since he was such a light sleeper and would know if someone moved him. He didn't bother to get changed just yet, walking downstairs to check on the kids that he was meant to be taking care of.

They were sitting around on the floor in the living room, Jun holding and playing with her baby sister and Ruka watching some cartoon on the big screen. He walked to the kitchen, more than desperate for plenty of coffee. He gently pushed past by his friend at the counter and pouring out a cup of coffee that Tala had kindly already prepared for him.

Tala put both hands on his shoulders, guiding him away from the counters, murmuring his orders, "Go and sit down, I'll bring you more coffee." He took the coffee to him after he'd sat down at the table, watching him drink it while he kept his hands on his tense shoulders. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap."

Tala's quiet chuckles earned himself a glare from the clearly pissed off younger blader, "Yes well I told you that sleeping on that sofa will do that to you- the two kids lying on your back probably didn't help you very much either."

Bryan mumbled quiet livid curses, bracing himself to push himself up. Tala stopped him again, "I need ice, Tal."

"Then I'll get it, just sit down before you hurt yourself."

"Thanks." Bryan pressed the ice pack to his neck as he had done the other night.

"I gave the kids breakfast, they all had a bath and changed. Their mom called and will be here earlier than planned because her mom is getting better."

Bryan's head connected with the table, "Great, now she thinks I've been slacking off or something."

"I didn't tell her you were still asleep and even if I had I'm sure she would have understood. You've never dealt with kids before…well, aside from the Abbey kids but that wasn't much help last night."

"I got to thinking a lot about the Abbey last night…"

Tala raised an eyebrow at him, looking just a little skeptical, "Does that mean I should be looking out for signs of depression?" he asked in a serious tone, making Bryan laugh.

"No…not really, I was just thinking of some of our nicer memories of the Abbey."

"We had _nice_ memories of the Abbey?!" Tala questioned with fake surprise, making Bryan laugh again.

"I was thinking about…like when I would turn the lights off for you at night and you'd cry really hard and try to hit me."

"That wasn't _nice_." Tala saying the last word as though he'd been burnt by it. "I was a kid scared of the dark."

"_Was_? You've changed but not _that_ much."

Tala gave him a strong 'don't mess with me' look, settling back comfortably in the chair beside him, "What other memories decided to cross your mind?"

"I remember getting beaten up so badly I was going to die, but you helped me out that night and I was thankful for it. I remember the time we found out Boris killed your mom after she gave birth to you…you stayed awake every night for months crying your heart out…"

"You need help if you think that's a nice memory." Tala bit out angrily at the thought.

"No, you don't get it. All these memories have our friendship in common, doesn't it? I like thinking that you and I have been trying to help each other all our lives. I thought about it when keeping an eye on the twins; Jun was sick and even though her sister was scared out of her mind about what was happening to her, she still tried her best to help her."

"Just like we did, right?"

"Yeah."

Tala sat forward, resting his head in his hand and staring at the plain wooden surface with different thoughts running through his head, his heart still a little saddened at the memory that Bryan brought up, "And we still are that way…I think."

"We are."

"Because…to this day we still go through things we know nothing about and we help each other out."

Tala narrowed his eyes at him, "Are you pissed off that I didn't stick around last night to help you with the kids?"

"No." He smirked, standing up and secretly smirking, "Because I know you're going to make it up to me by keeping an eye on them while I go have a long shower."

"I am?"

"Yes, enjoy the little gremlins."

Tala smiled, walking behind him out of the room, "You know what, Bry? I think that you really are like your mother, you've got some natural talent of dealing with children hidden inside of you somewhere."

"Yeah, right."

"You never know, with that in mind I could start acting more like a child. I might start to watch some cartoons while I'm at it."

"As if you need more ideas to help you bring out your idiotic side." Bryan laughed, making his painful way up the stairs for a good hour of relaxation, knowing that he could trust his best friend to spare him any more headaches for that long. He couldn't say he minded the kids too much. The main reason he disliked kids was because these days, they had everything Bryan never did. Then the night before he realized he had something better than what they got from family and from being in the outside world. He had his best friend who would always have his back but wouldn't mind leaving him alone long enough for him to realize things.

_**A/N: I have no real clue how all this came out but I don't mind it too much at least. Hopefully it wasn't a total loss. I suppose I was a little tired of seeing all those overly-humorous babysitting stories. Don't get me wrong, a lot of them are in fact funny and others are really great but I wanted to try something different. Doesn't make much sense for everything that could possibly go wrong to actually go wrong. **_

_**Hope some people liked it. Please leave a review and let me know what you thought. Take care everyone!**_


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